Merriment In The East

On Nov 19, the cousins got together for some family bonding, together with the grandparents - all thanks to Irene who invited us to her chalet at Downtown East! 

She booked a cosy and spacious corner room, and from the moment the little cousins met, it was non-stop, intensive playtime!

Travelling all the way to Downtown East imbued us with that sense of adventure, as we rarely venture into this part of Singapore. The resort feel of Costa Sands lulled us into the mood for holidaying and vacationing, and it is wonderful that we could indulge in such retreats without needing to travel overseas! 

We had a simple yet scrumptious lunch, comprising of delectable local delights like Penang char kway teow, curry fish head, nasi lemak and many more that we could not resist! 

It was serious soiree for the little cousins after lunch, with 5 recharged and boisterous girls indulging in some gleeful fun. Val brought along her little friend, Isabella, who was alone with us the whole day! 

I bought a packet of "blowing balloons" that journeyed straight out of our childhood days. Remember those tubes of gels where we use little straws to blow into really malleable yet fragile balloons?? Well, the kids went crazy over this when Irene, Fio and I blew these balloons for them. Big Bee was really good at blowing tremendously large balloons - even better than the adults! 

But the other little cousins who are much younger tend to deflate the balloons inadvertently rather quickly. We finished the entire packet of almost 15 tubes in a jiffy - with very tired mouths from blowing too many balloons! 

It was swimming time after we had usurped all the tubes of balloon gel, and we were truly thankful that the weather was wonderfully balmy yet not too sunny for a great swim! The girls were squealing and chuckling in delight, and had a truly fun time splashing around in the pool.

 

Dark ominous clouds loomed over us, and eventually large angry drops of rain pelted down on us in the typical late afternoon shower that was so ubiquitous this month. 

Back in the chalet, we squeezed all 4 little girls into the shower cubicle while Big Bee watched us bathe them in delight. It was like a factory production line - Irene would spray water on them, followed by me shampooing all their hair, then Irene would soap their bodies and we took turns to shower them clean. Then Fiona was in charge of towelling all of them dry. What hilarious fun! It was truly a sight seeing 4 little girls of similar height, stark naked and giggling, in a little shower cubicle. 

It was tea time once we got the girls nice and squeaky clean. Thanks to Irene's mum, all of us could indulge in some nice warm homemade green bean soup and fragrant pandan cake, as well as homemade agar agar from my mum! Slurp! The rain was pouring intensely outside but it was truly heartwarming and cosy within the chalet. 

All fun things must come to an end, and as the rain trickled to a halt, we bade farewell to each other but I am certain we would be seeing a lot more of each other during the December holidays!  

Birthday Chronicle

As Little Bee's 5th birthday approaches next month, she has beautiful memories of her birthday party with her best friends and has stopped asking me what else I have planned for her 5th birthday. 

A couple of days after her birthday party, she wrote a sweet-sounding journal entry in her diary, and I thought it encapsulated all that she felt, minus all those bombastic vocabulary words that adults use - which makes her little entry all the more endearing. 

In case the image is not clear, here was what she had written, with spelling help from me. 

"Today, I had my 5th birthday party. All my friends from my class came. My favourite part is putting make-up on my face. I am very happy because I have lots of presents."

She experimented with using some squiggly decorative fonts and cursive handwriting, hence some parts may be illegible. She drew the large, twirling and twinkling disco ball, the long catwalk runway, her birthday cake and her friends in her diary.  

As she approaches her 5th year in life, I could also sense her gradual maturity and cynicism, much like Big Bee now. This is evident in a conversation with Little Bee today: 

Little Bee: Mummy, who gives us all those presents under the Christmas tree? (she refers to all the anonymous presents under the tree that I always claimed were from Santa Claus, haha)

Me (looks at her with big, quizzical eyes): You should know the answer to that, right?

Little Bee: Is it Santa Claus?

Me: (nodded hesitantly, wondering if I should tell her the truth right now!)

Little Bee: (looking cynically at me) But, Mummy, there is no Santa Claus, right? Is he real?

Me: (dumbfounded and still undecided if I should tell her the truth, so decided to throw the question back to her!) What do you think?

Little Bee: NOOooooo....he is not real, he is just a fantasy! 

Me: (decided not to pull her leg anymore) Yes...you are right, Santa Claus is a fantasy figure!

I do miss my sweet, little innocent and naive babes :( 

However, that being said, the girls (even Big Bee!) still enjoy the thrill of receiving presents from "Santa Claus" - they will usually each receive a couple of mysteriously wrapped presents with unfamiliar handwriting of their names on the presents, and the sign-off of "S" - hmmm, I wonder who that would be? ;) 

The GEP Conundrum

* long post warning! *

I hesitated about writing this, as Big Bee reads my blog and she had always warned me not to write much about her! 

But being in primary 3 this year would mean one key thing to many parents: the GEP screening test. 

In recent years, I had seen many tuition and enrichment centres proclaiming their GEP preparation programmes are the best in town. I was aghast when I saw these advertisements. I always believe that being gifted intellectually cannot be artificially augmented - well, in some ways, as parents, we could help to nurture that love for learning, that ability to absorb information and knowledge in our kids. But I always believe that giftedness in academic ability is a trait that cannot and shouldn't be boosted by external means like tuition. 

Which was why I remained cool as a cucumber when Big Bee told me she sat for her GEP screening test a few months back. When she received a letter inviting her to the second round of GEP testing, together with about 30 or so kids from her school, I was pleasantly surprised but specifically emphasised to Big Bee that she should not practise or revise anything, as these would be totally irrelevant to the tests. 

In the first place, I am also not a strong advocate that giftedness should be tested through a series of pen and paper tests. I thought consistent school assessments as well as leadership qualities in class and school are far more accurate instruments of analysis. 

But still, when things like being shortlisted to the second round happened, there would always be well-concealed hopes and expectations - not just in me, but also very apparent in Miss Perfectionist. She was the one packing her pencil case on the days of testing, and she was the one who kept reminding blur Mummy about the dates of testing. 

Sometimes, I hate to see such expectations arising from my child, just in case they are sorely disappointed. But I guess these are life lessons for them. 

And true enough - she did not make it to the top 1% of the supposedly elite group. There were only 10 kids from her school who were selected into the GEP programme, and 7 of them were from her class. One of her best friends, A, was selected and would be transferring to a school with GEP programme. 

I could tell that Big Bee was a little disappointed, although she tried to hide it underneath her steely facade of bravado. But I had always been reassuring her that academic excellence is but a tiny part of life - a mere step in the long spiralling staircase of life. There are many more traits that make up a successful person. 

She got over this disappointment very quickly (I think). 

Her primary school also has this exclusive gifted class that I had always been eyeing out of the corner of my consciousness with curiosity - but never hope. The kids from this class would comprise of the selected GEP students (if they remain in the same school) as well as the other students who fared well in the GEP second round, but perhaps not good enough to be selected by our all-important MOE. 

The curriculum of this gifted class is similar to the other MOE-appointed GEP programmes, and was crafted in consultation with an American expert on gifted education. More importantly (for me), I was impressed by this class because the curriculum goes beyond the routine and unthinking school curriculum. On the contrary, their pedagogy teaches them to learn, nurtures them to think critically, encourages them to philosophize and embolden them with the ability to speak out and discuss issues in class. 

I was impressed. Because I had been disillusioned by Singapore's primary, secondary and even pre-university education system where academic success means exams success and little or no discussions in class. This was in stark contrast to the Bees' preschool where speaking out and expressing themselves are second nature to the kids. 

I could tell Big Bee harbours deep-seated hopes of entering this revered class. Yet I did not want to mention anything to her because I don't want her to be disappointed a second time round. 

2 nights ago, we went to collect our letters, and we saw a letter with her school logo on it. She looked at me with big round eyes and I could just feel her bated breath! 

I opened the letter swiftly, away from her, with the main objective of shielding any vile information that might strike more daggers into her little disappointed heart. 

To my great surprise and joy, she was selected into this gifted class! She was ecstatic and elated. Almost delirious with joy. There is an option to opt out - and I asked her to decide for herself without any pressure from me or Hubby. She wanted in. 

For me, I was excited because I love their enriching curriculum and pedagogy. I hope these will propel her to be a participative learner in school next year. 

More importantly - I am just grateful that her dreams had come true and that she is happy :) 

A Diva's Party

After Little Bee's 4th birthday party last year, with all her childhood playmates and cousins around her, she told me she wanted a 5th birthday party with all her best friends from school. Throughout the year, she would give me suggestions on the type of birthday party she wanted, and the 2 topmost on her list was: 1) a party with a gigantic bouncy castle, after seeing her jie-jie's 8th birthday party or 2) a fashion party! 

I thought a fashion party would be really fun for someone vivacious like Little Bee, after attending a similar party that Big Bee's friend organised when they were 6. 

Which was why we decided on a fashion party fit for a diva to celebrate Little Bee's 5th birthday. And we organised it a month earlier because we wanted to catch all the little kids before school closes for the holidays.

All ready to rock and roll! 

 

Party touches - no prizes for guessing the party theme, which was decided by Little Bee!

So, on November 6, we threw a bash alongside the great folks from Curly and Spike with a glamorous makeover party. All the girls from Little Bee's class were thrilled!

The transformation of Little Bee...

However, the 2 boys who turned up were a wee bit bored, although they could still get their hair done up. On hindsight, I should have organised more activities for the boys like racetrack building and lego assembling etc. 

The scene from outside the salon was one of organised chaos - 12 kindergarten kids sitting in different makeover stations, having their nails painted, their faces made up prettily with lashes drenched in smouldering mascaras, their hair curled into the latest princess fashions and or styled in a hip colour like green or red for the boys! 

There was also an art and craft table for the kids to work on woodblock decorations while waiting for their turns, although I would appreciate more attention from a party coordinator for this (I had to eventually turn craft teacher for the kids, and had to ask Big Bee to be my assistant!).

Big Bee didn't look too pleased at having to babysit so many little kids, but she did a great job that day!

Big Bee, being the cool tween, only got her nails painted and spent the whole party being the official photographer, just like her daddy! It was also an excellent opportunity for her to get to know her little sister's good friends, just like how her sister had gotten to know many of her friends!  

The highlight of the party was definitely the sizzling photoshoot with solo photos for individual fashionistas and an enamoring group photo as well as a dreamy fashion parade. The photoshoot was straightforward, with the stylists honing the photographic modelling skills of the kids - they each had to pose in different mannerisms in front of their gleeful classmates but all of them excelled in the art of photographic modelling!

I was absolutely delighted with the enchanting fashion parade! I opted for a slow-tempo music, and once the quixotic music wafted through the speakers, the lights dimmed, the disco ball overhead threw chimerical and bewitching fairy lights all around the room and the runway lit up with enthralling spotlights! 

The parents of all the kids were imbued with much excitement, and were so busy snapping photos of their strutting kids on the runway that we resembled the ubiquitous paparazzi on red carpets in show business!

Being the birthday girl, Little Bee had the opportunity to sashay down the runway multiple times, partnering each of her little guests. She looked shy yet bold, demure and daring. Being the convivial girl that she is, she was probably adoring all the lavish attention on her! 

All in all, Little Bee and her friends were really thrilled and elated with the party. The girls were posing and swaggering like superstars, and the boys - albeit a wee tad more shy - were displaying really cool stances during the photoshoots! I heard from the parents thereafter that they had difficulty getting their girls to wash off their curls and makeup! 

Best friends forever??

More importantly, Little Bee was surrounded by all the little kids who are her best friends - pals whom she spends every day in school with, over the past 2 years. I hope she will find this birthday party as memorable as it is for me :) 

The divas belting out the birthday song

Through The Seasons

As we focus on our homelearning theme of lifecycles, the Bees learned about the cyclical nature of various lifecycles, which is the most fundamental concept that they took away with. 

I thought it might be fun to depict the eternal recurrent pattern of lifecycles by understanding the seasons and how these seasons transform living things like trees. It is a "lifecycle" of sorts - where a tree blooms with resplendent flowers in spring, ripens into mellow dark green leafage in summer, casts off its gilded leaves of yellows and tangerines in flaming autumn and then remains barren yet stoic in winter with its branches laden with flawless white snow. 

We painted the 4 seasons and envisaged how a tree might look like in the different seasons. It is particularly hard to talk about seasons for us living in tropical Singapore, but travels to temperate countries, books and the mass media certainly helped in illustrating to the Bees the differences in the seasons. 

They had great fun using finger painting and the usual paintbrush techniques to paint the cyclical transformations of a tree through the four seasons! 

Big Bee's 4 Seasons

Little Bee's 4 Seasons

For Little Bee, I also used Chinese and English cards comprising of 春天，夏天, etc, as well as their English counterparts for word association and recognition. 

Her Forest Adventure

Big Bee went for a field trip to the Forest Adventure for a fun obstacle course, and she wrote about this account in her blog. Seemed like a fantastic trip for her! 

Here I am, standing aside, always behind her, lending my eternal support whenever needed....observing her as she becomes increasingly independent, developing her own personality, character and life....feeling entirely bittersweet :) 

Is this how our parents feel when we grew up into eventual adulthood? 

***********************************

Extracted from Big Bee's blog, unedited

I went to Forest Adventure at Bedok Reservoir for my school field trip on the 20th of October. Although it was only a 2 hours trip, it was very fun.

When I reached Forest Adventure, my mind was whirling with excitement while chatting nineteen to the dozen with my best friend. The day had dawned crystal clear and cheery. After queuing up to wear the harness, we started the tree-top challenge! 

My class went for the kids course. Some parts of the challenge were tricky, though most of them were actually quite easy. My favourite part of the challenge was the zip-line. It was exactly like a flying fox. I fastened the harness onto another rope and pushed myself off the little area to stand. The zip-line was fast and swift while my legs dangled in mid-air. I landed on the sand-pit at the bottom of the zip-line and sand went inside my shoes.

After a short rest, we needed to walk all the way to where the bus was. While walking, it began to pour as if a river had been let loose. As we all did not bring umbrellas, we had to run as fast as our legs could carry us another 150 metres to where the bus was. We were all drenched when we reached the bus! We finally sat on the bus and went back to school. It was a tiring but wonderful day.   

Spine-chilling Fun

On an overcast, stormy night, where the rain pelted down in dark fury and the winds were sighing agitatedly, a large motley crew of ghouls, demons, witches and vampires convened. There were also some fairies, a few princesses and a handful of pirates. Even Darth Vadar made a rare appearance from many galaxies away. 

Darth Vadar wheezed clumsily, then proceeded to remove his emblematic mask to reveal....Little Bee! A witch perched near Darth Vadar, with her face completely obscured beneath a dense curtain of thick, black hair, swept the hair aside to disclose...Big Bee! 

This was the 3rd Halloween party at our estate that the Bees were participating - and we had as much fun as previous years! However, timid Little Bee declined to take part in the trick-or-treats session this year, preferring to stay in the comfort of our safe home with my Mum. I guessed the gloomy weather had insidiously perturbed her!

The Witch and Darth Vadar

In the meantime, while waiting for the Bees' friends to arrive, Big Bee and I went ambling around for some trick-or-treats...and she was very brave this year! There was a house whose door was creepily shut with only a big skeleton hanging on the door with an eerie plaintive whine emanating from a scary sound machine. Big Bee, together with a group of 4 Japanese girls around her age, dared not knock on the door because they were spooked out by the scene and sound. I knocked on the door, with them cowering behind me, and the door creaked open slowly. A tall woman, hiding behind a monstrous mask, opened the door and moaned dramatically...albeit still giving the girls their treats. The girls retreated hastily, heaving huge sighs of relief. It was very amusing for me. 

There was a man who even asked me if I would like any treats, and stared in surprise when I told him I was Big Bee's mother. He uttered, "Oh, you look really young!" That made my evening for sure! ;) 

PF and LP came soon after, and after a quick dinner, the 5 children (minus Little Bee who was still contented to stay home) went jaunting around the estate for their treats. Check out their frightening ensemble! 

Can you recognise them? From left, Claire, Eugene, Big Bee, WW and WD

Back home, the mothers were chatting happily over dinner, and thereafter, after a long night, it was the kids' turns to pour out entire mountains of sweets to trade and discuss over!

Some serious trading going on! 

The next day, we adjourned to PF's house for another brief Halloween party where the Bees made new friends again. 

Little Bee can now join the rest of the big girls to play and yak, yay!

What a spookily fun weekend! 

Pasta Art

One of the advantages of aligning our homelearning theme with that of the school is that some of the crafts I planned to do were already done in school! Here is an interesting craft that depicts the amazing lifecycle of a butterfly which Little Bee created in school - using uncooked pasta. 

For the school's previous learning theme on dinosaurs, Little Bee also used pasta to create the skeleton structure of a brachiosaurus, after painting a landscape where the brachiosaurus supposedly lived.   

Pasta art is fun and creative - and really simple for the kids! 

The Laughing Game

On lazy evenings (like tonight!) when I do not feel like doing anything except good fun with the kids, the whole family would indulge in a session of "How Can We Make You Laugh Out Loud Without Tickling or Touching You?"

Each one of us would take turns to be the one entertained by convoluted sequences of creative hilarity, pure silliness and absolute antics by the others - and the challenge is not to laugh out loud or giggle! A slight smile might be tolerated, but the moment a chuckle escapes from our mouths if we are the one to be entertained, the turn goes to the next family member.

Lots of hysterical laughters and squeals would ensue, usually from those of us who are trying to make the main player laugh. Little Bee is amazing in that she could hold her laughter really well, putting on a fake woeful yet smug face, but she typically could not resist her darling big sister's antics. Big Bee would usually burst out laughing a full-bellied guffaw whenever Hubby or myself taunt her.

This is an absolutely silly game with totally zero "real" educational value. But to be able to laugh robustly, enjoy each other's tomfoolery and finding myriad angles to induce giggles - these, to me, are precious lessons about life and happiness indeed!

Side effects: coughing kids and heaving adults from laughing way too much!

The Festival Of Lights

Sweaty meshing of bodies. Ambrosial scents. Kaleidoscope of vivid chromatic fabrics.

No, I wasn't stuck in a dance party or a market. Rather, it was in Little India that I encountered such vibrancy for the senses.  

The Sunday before Deepavali, we trooped towards Little India to immerse ourselves in the impending celebrations of the Festival of Lights. It was the Bees' first trip right into the heart of Little India, and we wanted to go back another time soon!

We squashed with the festive crowds busy shopping in Mustafa Centre, and the Bees had their first experience of hastily trying out clothes in the constricted alleys of the congested Mustafa, with all eyes on them, 2 Chinese girls trying on resplendent saris. We bought 2 beautifully embroidered saris in dazzling lavender, all thanks to Hubby for choosing. 

The Bees adorned in their saris

We strolled along the streets of Little India, our olfactory senses engulfed in full-bodied fragrances of flavourful foods all around us. We looked around, amazed at the cultural diversity exploding in Singapore. We then ambled to the nearby spanking new City Square Mall, bewildered by the sheer size of the mall. 

We vowed to return with the Bees, who were as intrigued as us. And I would also love to bring them to Arab Street, Geylang Serai and many other ethnic quarters in multi-cultural Singapore...so that they would understand the idiosyncrasies and nuances of different cultures in Singapore.  

And on the day before Deepavali, Little Bee's class hosted the assembly performance in celebration of Deepavali (which was why we went to Little India to buy saris in the first place!). 

One thing I love about Little Bee's school is the opportunity to perform regularly (usually once in 2 to 3 months) in front of the entire school, performing plays, dancing and singing, so these kids would have no fear of public speaking and performing on stage in future. Parents are invited to such assemblies, and the school tries to involve parents in an interactive way during the performances. 

Big Bee with some of her best friends

For an extroverted and gregarious girl like Little Bee, who loves singing and dancing, she is like a fish in water when performing. For the Deepavali performance, her class performed a play depicting the origin of Deepavali, and 2 Indian dances. She had been constantly practising her dance moves at home, and telling us animatedly about her performance weeks before the day of performance. 

After the assembly, everyone praised her for her passionate Bollywood dancing. Some of the mothers were also dragged on stage to dance with them (including me!), and Little Bee was thrilled to see me beside her, performing in front of the school. 

Little Bee leading the pack during the 2nd dance performance!

That was truly one exciting performance by Little Bee and her friends, and I actually secretly enjoyed prancing around on stage with her!